What Is Web 3.0?

Although the industry has evolved considerably since its inception its current stage is akin to the auto industry in 1920 amp8212 that is it39s worldchanging technology that has been around for 20 years but is still relatively immature and in need of major improvementsTim BernersLee39s internet was to be quota collaborative medium a place where we could all meet and read and writequot An interconnected computer system designed for scientists to share experiments was soon dominated by AOL Compuserve early Yahoo and other portals These online service providers were the gateway to Web 10 where businesses individuals and governments began to consume and occasionally post content Netscape launched its web browser in 1994 prompting the dotcom explosion and the browser wars beganUnlike Web 10 where according to Graham Cormode and Balachander Krishnamurthy quotcontent creators were few with the vast majority of users simply acting as consumers of contentquot Web 20 brought us the quot39Web as Platform39 where software applications are built upon the Web as opposed to upon the desktopquot according to John Battelle and Tim O39ReillyThis enabled masses of users to participate in content creation on social networks blogs sharing sites and more Search engines and social media platforms driven by usergenerated content disrupted the media advertising and retail industries As a result giant companies in retail and publishing that did not adapt have died or are struggling to stay aliveWeb 2039s business model relies on user participation to create fresh content and profile data to be sold to third parties for marketing purposes Indeed the internet has become a massive app store dominated by centralized apps from Google Facebook and Amazon where everyone is trying to build an audience collect data and monetize that data through targeted advertising In my opinion the centralization and exploitation of data and the use of it without users39 meaningful consent is built into Web 2039s business modelSo what is Web 30Five years ago it was thought that the next generation of the internet would be the Semantic Web BernersLee coined the term to describe a web in which machines would process content in a humanlike way ie a quotGlobal Brainquot where all data would be connected and understood both contextually and conceptuallyThe Semantic Web did not materialize for a number of reasons The primary reason was that the real AI technology referred to as RDF resource description framework was nearly impossible to implement How can a machine know the difference between a jaguar the animal and a Jaguar the car The only way to know the difference is to understand the context in which it is being describedConnecting concepts and building taxonomies for every word are monumentally difficult tasks So difficult that despite IBM39s Watson spending billions to advance this technology it never truly came to fruitionAlthough not the Semantic Web envisioned by BernersLee Web 30 is in many ways a return to his original web where quotno permission is needed from a central authority to post anything there is no central controlling node and so no single point of failure and no quotkill switchquotThe rise of technologies such as distributed ledgers and storage on blockchain will allow for data decentralization and create a transparent and secure environment overtaking Web 2039s centralization surveillance and exploitative advertising Decentralized infrastructure and application platforms will displace centralized tech giants and individuals will be able to rightfully own their dataIndeed one of the most significant implications of decentralization and blockchain technology is in the area of data ownership and compensation As we move toward Web 30 and the technologies that support it mature and become scalable I believe the web will reflect its original intentSurely BernersLee did not foresee that internet behemoths would dominate the web and become owners and profiteers of our data The chronic interruptions that have become the norm in Web 20 will disappear as decentralization also makes possible transparent optin peertopeer communications that allow individuals to take ownership of their precious timeIn sum Web 30 will bring us a fairer internet by enabling the individual to be a sovereign True sovereignty implies owning and being able to control who profits from one39s time and information Web 3039s decentralized blockchain protocol will enable individuals to connect to an internet where they can own and be properly compensated for their time and data eclipsing an exploitative and unjust web where giant centralized repositories are the only ones that own and profit from itThis article was originally published in Forbes on January 6 2020Click the social buttons to share this story with colleagues and friendsThe opinions expressed here are the author39s views and do not necessarily represent the views of MediaVillagecomMyersBizNet

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What Is Web 3.0?

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Charlie Silver

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